Articles

2. Small Scale Wastewater Treatment Unit

At present, rural Palestinian areas dispose waste water using cesspits. Most of the cesspits are left without a cement basement or lining so that sewage infiltrates into the earth layers. The owners avoid using the expensive services of the vacuum tankers to empty them. The uncontrolled flow of sewage causes many environmental problems and health hazards. And since most of the Palestinian rural population depends on agriculture to make their living, ARIJ has recognized the importance of introducing a friendly technology to assist these communities in treating their generated wastewater and reusing this water in agriculture, and for that it created the first Local Small Wastewater Treatment pilot model.

The local small wastewater treatment unit provides a convenient means of sewage disposal and pollution prevention, while allowing the reuse of the effluent for irrigation, especially that Palestinians suffer from water shortage, where the total real deficit in domestic water supply per year reaches 62.417 MCM for the whole of the West Bank. It’s also important to note that it’s economically unfeasible to construct wastewater collection networks and centralized wastewater treatment plants for the people in the rural areas.

Much support is needed to spread the idea of using the small wastewater treatment technique, in order to exploit wastewater in enhancing the agricultural section, on which many Palestinian families depend to make their living, and have a good life.

You can be part of this great initiative by funding and sponsoring the installation of one of these units.